No More RVing In Stormy Weather!
Mari
Wow, what an eventful week. Finally, the date arrived for me to attend the Web Community Forum Facebook Conference in Seattle. For the past month or so, Ty and I molded our entire travels around this one event. (Otherwise, we would’ve long gone south as I mentioned here).
We endured the hellish Washington storms, including losing our awning by crossing the Hood Canal Bridge. Yikes, that was one scary experience!! We were doing fine heading back to Lake Pleasant RV Park in Bothell, after enjoying a wee side trip to visit Fort Worden in Port Townsend (where An Officer and A Gentleman was filmed in the 80’s!).
However, as soon as we began to cross the Hood Canal Bridge, winds up to 60 mph blasted into the side of our coach, throwing giant waves up on to the bridge and soaking the vehicles too.
The awning fixtures started to come loose and bang about - I watched out the side mirror in horror as Ty skillfully continued on (well, what can you do; once you’re on that bridge ya gotta keep going!!)
Once we got to the Edmonds side, we pulled over to the side while the authorities closed the bridge behind us. Eek. We pretty much had no choice but to rip off the fabric of the awning and trash the whole thing in a nearby dumpster! 
Bummer. That’s about $1200 bucks or more to replace.
Fortunately, the rest of the week went fairly well. I blogged about the Facebook keynote speaker, Jeremiah Owyang, here. And I was delighted to get most votes for one of the unconference sessions on Business to Business Marketing Using Facebook. Check out fun pics from the event here.
Keep Going South ‘Til The Butter Melts!
Then, our plans were to hit the road on Friday and "keep going south ’til the butter melts" as one RVer recently suggested to me! 
However, we got held up waiting for our forwarded snail mail packet to arrive. Darn Postal Annex - their service hasn’t been that reliable so far. I’d read up on all kinds of suggestions from Tim Ferriss about mail forwarding services, and am kinda wishing we’d made a different choice. Oh well, our address is all in place now.
[Photo: Lake Pleasant RV Park, Bothell, WA - one of the nicest parks we've stayed at so far!]
After waiting around Lake Pleasant for an extra day to no avail, we decided to take off anyway and instructed the RV Park Manager to return our package back to San Diego. (We plan to arrive around December 19 in time for all the Holiday parties with our buds!)
For our journey south, we’re taking the 101 Scenic Coastal Route for much of the northern part.
We took a quick tour through Aberdeen - I thought it would be neat to visit my Scottish sister city. Gotta say, I was underwhelmed. Apparently, this is the birthplace of grunge - hm, I can see why.
But then we got real lucky and found a gem of a campground on Cape Disappointment. Funny name, I know! In 1788, English explorer Captain John Meares tried to find the Columbia River and was discouraged to run into the headlands here instead. Little did he know how close he was!!
[Photo: just caught the gorgeous sunset on Cape Disappointment State Park; 2 miles southwest of Ilwaco, off US Hwy 101 - where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.]
Posted on: Saturday, December 8, 2007 at 8:47 pm 
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Bummer about the awning.
So, are you from Aberdeen? My family lives in the Black Isle, so I’ve been to Aberdeen a few times.
I’m a new RVer, surfing around looking for blogs, and I found you. Hello.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:03 pmMari Dear,
don’t you love the drama and excitement? Thanks for waking me up and getting me prepared for motorhome living.
December 13th, 2007 at 5:10 pmYou are scaring me to death girlfriend! Traveling with you two is like being in a cliffhanger movie on the edge of my seat…WHAT NEXT??
I see Ty and You are keeping your humor while sliding down mountains with no snow tires and being almost washed off bridges with you coach torn apart. YIKES is RIGHT!!
Are we going to have to send the MOUNTIES out????
hehehhehe
Hope your holiday spirits are bright! Merry Christmas.
@Linda - I’m from Edinburgh, though born & raised in Canada. Aberdeen, Scotland is a lovely place. I’m delighted to connect with a budding RVer - hope to meet you on the road!! Stay in touch, eh.
@Alexandra - tee-hee, we’re doing just fine. But yeah, lots of drama to keep us on our toes. Yesterday, we ran our toad’s battery flat. Ty left the map light on all night. Oops. Had to charge her up before we could set off - with a Honda CRV, you have to switch from drive to neutral while the engine is on so the transmission isn’t ruined. Hm, all these technicalities!!
December 13th, 2007 at 8:45 pmnow this looks like an idea!
travel, blog, have fun, live life.
cool
December 19th, 2007 at 4:47 pm[...] and Mari had an unfortunate experience in Washington. I found 20mph winds disconcerting enough. They tripled that. addthis_url = [...]
December 26th, 2007 at 4:15 pm